What Each Blogger Will Do: Bloggers can participate on Blog Action Day in one of two ways:

1. Publish a post on their blog which relates to an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.2. Commit to donating their day’s advertising earnings to an
environmental charity of their choice. There is a list of "official"
Blog Action Day charities on the site, however bloggers are also free
to choose an alternate environmental charity to donate to if they wish.

I live in Vancouver, B.C. in a nice area called Kitsilano. Most days I leave my apartment by walking into the alley. Everyday I'm disgusted by the smell and the unsightly light brown ooze coming out of one large black garbage bin.

The fat/grease/oil ooze seeps out of the garbage bin.

It seems that the Mexican restaurant Las Margaritas chooses to dump all their oil and deep-fried fat into that garbage bin which in turn seeps out of the garbage bin and runs all the way down the alley and most likely into the water table. It smells, its disgusting and most importantly it is polluting MY ENVIRONMENT. I've also been told by a friend that its illegal. So...act local right?

This is where the ooze drips out of the garbage bin.

This is the garbage bin.

The ooze smells horrible.

It goes all the way down the alley.

Disgusting.

I'll be talking to the Las Margaritas restaurant manager and see if they can stop pouring this digusting fat, grease and oil into the garbage. If they don't stop dumping this ooze into their garbage bin I'll have to call the Vancouver city council about the problem and of course setup a massive boycott of Las Margaritas. You know Las Margaritas probably isn't even aware of the problem.

I think with alot of environmental issues people just dont know that something is wrong. It is up to us to educate these people!

So...if something is bothering you about YOUR environment make a change to STOP IT. DO SOMETHING. Blog action day got me off my ass to do something...maybe you can too!

Take a shorter shower. If you take long
showers, consider cutting it short by a few minutes. You’ll conserve
water, and the electricity needed to heat up the water, lowering your
utility bills and reducing your energy consumption at the same time.

Use a rag or hand towel instead of napkins or paper towels.
Reusing items instead of using disposable items is almost always a
better thing for the environment. Reduce the need to cut down trees,
the power needed to turn them into napkins, and the space in the
landfill once you throw them away.

Don’t print at least once today. Instead of
automatically hitting the “print” button, think of whether you really
need a hardcopy of that document. Can you email it instead? File it on
your computer instead of your file cabinet? Read it on the computer
instead of on paper? You don’t have to eliminate printing entirely, but
holding off on that “print” button once in awhile could greatly reduce
your paper consumption.

Carpool once this week. Have a friend or
family member or co-worker who makes roughly the same commute as you?
Try riding together at least once. It save on fuel consumption, cuts
your fuel spending, reduces greenhouse emissions, and you can get a
good conversation at the same time.

Turn off the TV for an hour. Reduce your
energy consumption and get outside and play a sport. Or garden. Or just
take a walk. You get healthy and enjoy the natural beauty of your
surroundings.

Turn off the lights.
If you leave a room, even for a little while, turn off the lights. You don’t need it, and it’s wasting energy.

Use a coffee mug instead of disposable. If
you routinely use disposable cups at work or on the road, use a ceramic
coffee cup or a travel mug, reducing the amount of trash you throw away.

Use CFC light bulbs. If your light bulb burns
out, replace it with a Compact Flourescent bulb (those spiral-looking
ones). They’re more expensive, but if you just replace them one at a
time, it doesn’t cost much, and the energy savings is great. And as
they last longer, over the long run, you’ll save money.

Skip the foil and plastic wrap. Use reusable
plastic food containers to store leftovers or other food in the fridge
and cabinets, instead of disposable material.

Inflate your tires. Many people don’t realize
that their tires are under-inflated. Check the recommended pressure for
your tires, and fill them up to that pressure. It only takes a few
minutes, but it will save you on fuel consumption (a little) and more
importantly, make your tires last longer and reduce the rubber that’s
worn off your tires.

Clean up. If you go to the beach or a park,
leave it cleaner than when you got there. Pick up some cans and other
trash that were there when you arrived. Takes a couple minutes, and
makes the world a nicer place to live in.

Talk to your kids about the environment. Just
a 5-minute conversation every now and then about fuel consumption,
greenhouse emissions, wasting food and trash, energy consumption,
preserving habitats … this can help educate your children about the
issues that will be affecting them tomorrow. And an educated population
will do more to help the environment than anything else.

Reuse printed paper. If you have
non-sensitive documents that have been printed out, but are no longer
needed, try marking the printed side, and using the clean side for
non-official printing. In fact, if you can get your office to do this,
you’ll save tons of paper a year.

Turn down your water heater. Most people
have their water heater’s thermostat turned up too high, wasting
energy. Turn it down to 130 degrees, saving energy but still hot enough
to kill bacteria.

Plant a tree. It really doesn’t take much
time, and over time more trees in your community can make a difference.
Do a few every year, and encourage others to do the same.

Hang out your clothes. If it’s a nice sunny
day, hanging clothes only takes a few minutes, and you’re using solar
power instead of electricity to do the job. It also makes your clothes
last longer.

Buy a manual reel mower or electric mower. If
you’re looking for a new lawn mower, and you have a small yard,
consider getting a manual one. They’re much advanced from the reel
mowers of our grandparents’ generation, much quieter, cheaper, and they
save on fuel and pollution. Electric mowers are also quieter and use
much less energy.

Get a low-flow shower head. Stop at the
hardware store on your way home, and get a low-flow shower head. Takes
a few minutes to install, and it’ll save gallons of water a day.

Lower your thermostats. If you use heating,
get by with less heat and wear warmer clothes. If you use
air-conditioning, get by with less cooling and wear cooler clothes.

Participate or organize a clean-up. Sure,
this’ll take a little more of your time, but if you don’t have much to
do on the weekends, this can be tremendously fun and fulfilling. Clean
up a beach, a street, a park, a lake or a river.

Avoid fast food. Instead, eat at home or at a
sit-down restaurant. Fast food restaurants are one of the worst
polluters of the environment, both in the massive amounts of beef they
must raise, in the wasted packaging, and in the energy they use in so
many ways. And they’re tremendously unhealthy.

Use acryllic paint. Oil-based paints are
toxic and create a lot of pollution during manufacturing. Instead, if
you’re going to buy paint, buy acryllic.

Coat your roof. This’ll take up an afternoon,
but you only have to do it once every few years. And it’ll save you a
lot of money and energy in heating and cooling over the long-term, more
than making up for the cost of paint.

Clean your filters. Clean the filters of your
air-conditioners once a month to improve energy efficiency. While
you’re at it, change your car’s filters as recommended in your manual.

Telecommute.I know, sounds great, where do I
sign up? But if you talk to your employer about even a limited
telecommuting schedule, you can save a lot of fuel and time, and be
more productive at the same time. Just be sure to get a lot more done
at home than you do at work to make your case for an expanded
telecommuting schedule down the road.

Wash clothes in cold water.
Hot water is unnecessary for most clothes. When needed, use warm water.

Fill your toilet tank.
Put a plastic bottle or two, filled with water and rocks, in your tank to reduce the amount of water used in each flush.

Buy recycled products.As much as possible, get the recycled version of products you buy.

Recycle. Sure, it’s a regular practice in
some places, with curb-side pickup of recycled waste. But in other
places, there’s no such thing. Instead, create a few containers for
paper, plastic and aluminum waste in your home or office. When it’s
full, drop it off at a local recycling center (look in your phone book)
on your errands day.

Buy a smaller car. You won’t be able to do
this today, probably, but the next time you’re in the market for an
automobile, get a smaller and energy-efficient car rather than a big,
lumbering one. It’s one of the best things you can do to reduce your
fuel consumption.

Buy a smaller home. The next time you’re
home-shopping, instead of buying the McMansion, look for a smaller home
that’s big enough to meet your needs comfortably. Reducing the amount
of stuff you own is a good way to need less house. It’s cheaper, and
requires less energy to heat and cool. And easier to clean at the same
time.

Look for energy efficiency. When you’re
looking to buy appliances, be sure to research the most
energy-efficient ones. They may cost a little more, but they’ll more
than make up for that in the long run with lower energy bills.

Water grass early in the morning.
Reduces the amount of water you need to keep your grass looking fabulous.

Plant shade trees near your house.
It’ll take awhile before they can make a difference, but shade trees greatly reduce the need to cool a home.

Use rechargeable batteries. Instead of
throwing your batteries away all the time, reuse rechargeable
batteries. Costs a little more, but cheaper in the long run.

Buy used. Instead of buying new clothing,
furniture, cars, whatever, look to buy used instead. You can get them
for cheaper, and still get quality — all the while reducing the need to
produce more stuff.

Walk instead of drive. You don’t have to do
this all the time, but walking the short trip to a store, or to lunch
from work, or some other short trip like that, can reduce the amount of
fuel you use over the long term, and you shed some fat at the same
time. Or at least burn off that morning donut.

Unplug appliances.
If you don’t use an appliance several times a day, it’s better to unplug it, as they often use energy even when turned off

Unload your car.
Remove excess weight from your car (such as stuff that might be in the trunk) to reduce the amount of fuel you use.

Try cycling.
Biking to work or around town can be a great way to get in some exercise and save fuel.

Install a water filter. If you buy a lot of
bottled water, use your tap instead. Some places need a filter to make
tap water taste drinkable, but they don’t cost much and they can save
money, water, and plastic bottles over time.

Use cloth shopping bags.
Don’t cost much, and can save a lot of paper or plastic.

Mend your stuff.
Try not to throw stuff away and buy new stuff if the old stuff can be fixed. Torn clothing? Takes a few minutes to sew up.

Compost. It’s not hard to set one up (look it
up online), and you can save a lot of waste from the landfill and help
your garden at the same time.

Try mass transit.
Millions of people use it, and it saves tons of fuel. If you don’t already, give it a try.

Use your oven less. The oven not only uses a
lot of energy, it heats up your kitchen, requiring more cooling.
Instead, use toaster ovens, crockpots, microwaves, and electric grills
when you can. And when you do use your oven, open it less — you lose
25% of the heat every time you open the oven door.

Join a local organization. Just about every
community has one or more environmental organizations. It’s not hard to
sign up, and when you have the time, you can volunteer for things that
will clean up your community and make it a nicer place to live.

Join Blog Action Day. By joining the rest of
the blogging community in talking about the environment for one day
(Oct. 15), you will be helping to raise environmental consciousness,
with just one blog post. What can be easier than that? Find Out More

Good one Jon. When I worked at Dairy Queen we had special bins we had to dump the deep fry oil into. We had special people come and pick it up too. I thought anyone with a restaurant license would have to know that? Wouldn't whoever did their inspection ask where the grease bucket was???

Good post. People really need to start paying more attention to the environment. It's getting sickening. I remmeber in elem. school they banned Dixie cups because they weren't biodegradable. Now we have disposable Swiffer, Windex, Pledge wipes, you name it! More than enough packaging and more than enough disposable crap.

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